Blog

I seem to have been carrying out more coaching with individuals recently and have thoroughly enjoyed it for three reasons:

• It's helped me to remember that it is all about the individual, focussing on their needs and situations. This reminded me that as leaders and managers, we should be focussed on the needs of our staff, since it is our job to enable the people underneath and around us to do a fantastic job and often the things that prevent that are the irritants, the small things that block performance.

• Seeing individuals reach their ‘light-bulb' moment and then driving through to identify the actions they need to take, together with the enthusiasm and confidence they have generated for themselves.

• Watching the results of their decisions unfold in positive ways for both them and their staff, by simply stopping and thinking rather than just reacting. This is something we're all guilty of, the world is fast paced but sometimes we confuse activity with progress.

This has been further supported by watching managers and potential coaches on the training programmes I'm involved with, when we show them how simple coaching can be and get them to practice. The results of the skills practice seem to stun both ‘coaches' and ‘clients', as once they've given it a go themselves they suddenly get IT.

What is IT you may ask?

The power of questioning and self-reflection, combined with action, responsibility and accountability. It really is as simple as that, whilst having a robust but flowing framework with which to work in.

The question is - what are you doing to develop these skills in yourself and, just as importantly, in others?